![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwex
Unlike, it seems, most liberal types, I'm not in favor of a bailout for the auto industry - at least not as currently conceived.- I do think the auto industry is almost wholly to blame for its current mess. I don't see why the US taxpayer should be required to step in and fix problems that the Big 3 made.
- I see absolutely NO possible way that automobile manufacturing policy and production strategy can be run from Washington. The whole idea of a "Car Czar" is an attempt by people to imagine an heroic rescuer who will somehow have miraculous powers and save us all. I roll to disbelieve.
- I do think that Chapter 11 is the proper mechanism for large-scale restructuring of companies in trouble.
- I do not like the fact that the Dems caved and let this bailout money be taken away from fuel-efficiency programs. WTF guys? Did you not read the memo from angry drivers back this summer when gas hit $4/gallon? Do you continue to fantasize that it won't hit $4 again?
- I do not like the fact that the Big 3 will be allowed to continue to sue the EPA over fuel efficiency mandates, safety mandates, etc. If we (the government) own these fukkers, why are we letting them spend millions to sue us so we have to spend more millions defending those lawsuits? This is an utter farce.
On the other hand:
- the lack of a bailout is being used as a sledgehammer to smash the unions. Excuse me, but last I looked the union contracts were negotiated in good faith. If the Big 3 couldn't project the future costs of pension and health plans whose fault is that, exactly? We laud companies for negotiating the best bargain they can get but when unions do that it's somehow evil? No, I don't think so. It's sure as hell not the union's fault that GM recalled and pulped its entire fleet of electric cars from CA a few years ago. Unions don't control product strategy and blaming them for the Big 3's shortsightedness is a crock and it doth stink.
- why the hell are auto dealers being scapegoated? It takes about 1 minute of research to learn that dealerships are a source of REVENUE for car companies. They pay franchise fees and licensing fees, for example. For the most part, consumers don't buy the autos that come off assembly lines - dealers buy those. They're also a major source of revenue for their local markets (newspapers and radio in particular) and you know what - if there's an oversupply of dealerships I'm reasonably sure the market will deal with that. (I'm not one to believe that market forces are solutions to every problem, but this is one where I really believe traditional supply/demand forces apply.)
Currently it's being made to seem as if a government bailout is the only way to avoid a huge amount of collateral damage to the little guys. This sticks in my craw, severely.
